Spinal Network News - August 2017

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he couldn’t do, but Pullar wasn’t listening. He believed his life wasn’t over, and he set out to prove it. Pullar realised the most important thing was getting back his fitness. He said he was lucky he got his arms back. “I was a quadriplegic but, I was better than a quadriplegic. I could stand, but I couldn’t walk,” he says. Being able to stand was a huge advantage for Pullar. It meant he could stand and do the dishes. He could shuffle along the aisle on an aeroplane. He could hold his own weight. He had his independence. Pullar stayed in hospital for as long as he could—as long as he could see improvement. Then it was time to move on. “It was hard to go back to Waimate after that and twiddle my thumbs, so I had to start thinking,” Pullar says about what he was going to do next. He would go on to become a qualified plumber and was proud that he was able to pass his final exam by dictating the answers lying on his bed. He went on to work for a company in Christchurch and loved the feeling of earning a wage. Three years after his injury, he met a woman who would change his life for the better. Pullar made his way to a friend’s engagement party, which was around three years after his spinal injury. He had had a girlfriend before his injury, but he broke it off soon after as he could see that it wasn’t going to be the same. When he was injured, he had no thoughts of any relationships or prospects whatsoever. “Marriage or a long-term relationship was not going to be part of my life. I had resigned myself to that fact,” he says in his dry tone. But a drunken party in Waimate changed everything. He met an attractive young nurse called Barbra; the two formed a special friendship and only a few months later, they were married. “Barb reckons that I wasn’t talked into it… but it was pretty close to it,” he says with a laugh and the smile of a joke that has been told many times. “It wasn’t on my radar, so you can’t discount anything can you?” Barbra and Alan have been married for 46 years this year, and they have two daughters together, Jessica and Emilie. He describes those moments as the highlights of his life. It wasn’t a long courtship, and they raised a few eyebrows when they began building a house before they got married. Pullar wasn’t working. He was still at Polytech and it was only three-and-a-half years after his injury. “It was 1971, and Barbra said we couldn’t afford to build a house and I said we couldn’t afford not to,” he says. “We had the house built by the time we got married and it was one of the best things that I ever did.” Alan and Barbra were part of the lucky generation to benefit from a once-in-a-lifetime property boom. The house they built at 56 Fern Drive, was completed for $13,000. Many years later, they sold it for $49,000 and purchased a place at Hartley Avenue for $68,000, which, in July 2012, sold for $810,000. It was clear their first home was a life-changing decision. Alan and Barbra became reliant on each other and Pullar said her moral and financial support enabled him to do a lot of things that he never dreamed possible. His memoirs tell of the time when they built their first home and their mortgage was $49 per month based on borrowings of $10,000, which worked out to be one week’s pay. Barbra was the only one working before Pullar began working at a steel department as a costing clerk. After that, he attended Christchurch Polytechnic and completed a certificate in business administration which would prove helpful later in life. “We had lot of fun back in those days,” he says with a twinkle in his eyes. Nine years after his injury, in 1975, Alan and Barbra went on their big OE. They lived in London for four years and travelled throughout Europe in a campervan— an automatic Volkswagen van with hand controls, which helped Pullar go where he pleased. “We had a lot of fun back in those days,” he says with a twinkle in his eyes. “I have special memories of those times.” Pullar has written a detailed memoir of his life and one of the notable aspects of it is, the 158 pages recounting his adventures never mention a wheelchair. The fact that they sojourned through Austria, Germany, Greece, Denmark, and Sweden, all the time free-camping, drinking, and exploring, underline that there were few limits to what they would take on. “It was significant to me—nothing was a hurdle. There were steps and things like that, but we generally got around any hurdles one way or another. No mobility access back in those days...but we just got on with it and went where we wanted to.” When Alan and Barbra came back to New Zealand, a couple of friends who had a construction business asked him if he wanted to join them. He began working for them part-time and proudly says he made quite a lot of money. Part-time work became full-time, from 1980 until 1992, when his life would change once again. Sadly, his independence took a body blow in 1992. He had an operation on his neck—to alleviate the problem of a cyst forming on his neck—which proved worse than his original injury. It made Pullar, not a complete quadriplegic, but close enough to it. “Then I wasn’t independent anymore, which was hard to take…” Never one to sit idle, Pullar started his own business hiring out shipping containers for storage, while his neck operation was pending in 1992. His Dad owned a business, so he thinks that was probably an inspiration for him. Starting this business turned out to be a hugely significant decision. Three years ago, he sold the company, which had grown exponentially across Christchurch as well as in value. “It was enough to keep the shareholders and our family very comfortable for the rest of our lives. Everybody did extremely well out of it. It was a nice conclusion to my business life.” Pullar has been lucky. But, as he would say, you make 10 |
your own luck in life. He has never given up, even through all the adversity life has thrown at him. His first few days in the spinal unit following his rugby injury sum up his attitude. He wouldn’t wait for the nurses to come and get him out of bed. He was up before 7am, had the keys to the gym, and was into his workout at 8am, trying to improve. It is a lifetime ago, but a generation of old-school values and determination have helped Pullar live a fulfilling life. He has never made excuses and takes huge pride in making the most of his life every day. “I was never frightened to be seen in public in my wheelchair, and that is something that people in wheelchairs have to get over. I don’t care where I go. It has never worried me. I have always wanted to get on with my life and that has always been my attitude.” Pullar was very matter-of-fact during our conversation. That is who he is. He lights up when talking about his past sporting glories before the accident; the fortunes he made in his business life; and his wonderful family. Alan Pullar marks a special milestone this year—50 years of a fulfilling life in a wheelchair. It is one that he has achieved because he’s never looked back and has had a good woman by his side every day. Alan with his daughter and grandchildren | 11
Page 1 and 2: SNN August 2017 Volume 20 Issue 2 I
Page 3 and 4: EDITORIAL GIVING YOUR LIFE A PLAN..
Page 5 and 6: THE ULTIMATE DRIVING CONTROLS HERE
Page 7 and 8: Hans Wouters presents the “Chalic
Page 9: As Pullar lay prone saying the Lord
Page 13 and 14: down the country seemed to threaten
Page 15 and 16: ActiveReach technology is the ultim
Page 17 and 18: the past with other mishaps. But ob
Page 19 and 20: The approach works at three levels:
Page 21 and 22: Your perfect compact catheter and p
Page 23 and 24: CONNECTING PEOPLE Debz’s Blog I r
Page 25 and 26: What does a TAiQ powerchair have in
Page 27 and 28: on a rope. De Thierry was like a ki
Page 29 and 30: EMOTIONAL AGILITY, BY SUSAN DAVID,
Page 31: Thank you to our FUNDERS & SPONSORS

Spinal Network News - August 2017

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